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<title>Sustenance by Jazzybot4 (SniperinaJumper)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26610364">Sustenance</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SniperinaJumper/pseuds/Jazzybot4'>Jazzybot4 (SniperinaJumper)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Soft Wars - Fandom, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:55:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>986</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26610364</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SniperinaJumper/pseuds/Jazzybot4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>They’d all gone hungry enough, in the GAR. Hungry for affection, for safety, for love, for supplies, for food and drink. They had all gone hungry enough, in Soups eyes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>71</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Open Source Soft Wars</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sustenance</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/gifts">Project0506</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Inspired by the badass soup I've made for dinner, and Soft Wars Discord Peeps doing things. Y'all ROCK!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The thing about Concord Dawn, the one thing that everyone understood, was that nobody ever went hungry. Not for anything. If you were hungry for something, you could find it easy enough. It was like feasting all the time, Soup thought. Hugs were easy currency, smiles and laughter and negotiations fast and in the languages of a thousand worlds filled the air. Always, they understood that they didn’t have to be hungry. </p><p>They’d all gone hungry enough, in the GAR. Hungry for affection, for safety, for love, for supplies, for food and drink. They had all gone hungry enough, in Soups eyes. </p><p>So that was why, when they made landfall in the capital city, he’d set up a kitchen. Hunted for the meat, negotiated for the fruits and veggies. Some of the Rogers had decided to help him out, and the Community Garden was flourishing with foodstuffs from a thousand worlds, brought as seeds in a thousand pockets. The way that they worked was less barter and more symbiosis, these days. The Rogers had a place to do things, and the Kitchen always had produce to share. </p><p>Soup was the one who set up Soups Kitchen, and he wouldn’t take your currency for any of it.</p><p>It was more an open-air mess, at this point. The center of the large ring of tables and chairs had counters arrayed around every cooktop that Soup could get off of any ship they could salvage, and a few things he’d built himself. His pride and joy was the very large vat at the center of a rocket-heated stove, a repurposed scrubbed-to-base-metal-and-re-seasoned cast durasteel melting crucible. The heat from the vat was siphoned away at the top by a lattice of cooling pipes, the now-steaming water sent off to the nearby showers building, always hot water on tap. </p><p>The soup was never cold, the vat was never empty, and Soup was always adding something to it to bulk it out and re-render it down. Anyone could have a bowl or five, if they wanted, over noodles or rice or whatever they could bring back. Often, people would bring their own groceries to the Kitchen, using the cooktops to make themselves and any Vod willing to help with prep and cleanup a meal. </p><p>Soup was so damn proud of his brothers. They cared for each other, easy as breathing, despite personalities that clashed, or the ones who were so attached as to have a name mashed into their partners. Twins, lovers, sometimes more. They’d come to his Kitchen, the simple chaos of it, and Soup would greet them all.</p><p>“You’ve got a little something on your face there, boss.” one of his visitors said, grinning back at him, reaching out to poke him in one of his dimples. “Looks like it’s contagious. Have you seen a doc for it?” he teased, and Soup could do little less than kick his leg out, get him in a headlock, and noogie his ridiculous badger-stripe haircut. Soup had *missed* his batchmate. Grate was a good Vod, if a little hard on the nerves. </p><p>“Says you, you karking space-dried raisin-brain.” Soup laughed, and then set Grate back on his feet. “Come on over for a bowl. We’ve got spicy today, or if you want something sweet I think that Carmine is on the wok burner doing something with shrimp.” he said, gesturing to one side of the cooking area where one Vod was shaking a pan. Fire flared up briefly and then a large pile of something in a dark sauce was poured into a serving dish. The dish was whisked away to the Long Table, where a pack of hungry Vod’Ika descended on it with chopsticks and thrown elbows. </p><p>“Thanks, but I value my life.” Grate deadpanned, and Soup laughed at his face. Then he was dragging him over to the Big Vat, climbing up the short set of steps to the walkway that let Soup get to the surface of it. Grabbing the ladle hooked on the side of the vat, he grabbed a large bowl from the stack on this access point, ladling up a large portion and scooping a pile of steamed grain into the bowl too. He pressed it into Grates hand, leading him to a quieter table in the shade of a large awning. </p><p>“Gotta admit, it’s good to see you dirtside.” Soup said, grinning. Grate stuffed a mouthful of food down, before he winced, reaching for one of the cold tankards that a passing Roger had placed on the table between them, unprompted. Soup laughed at his expression of pained delight. </p><p>“Good to be dirtside. We’ve got a full cargo of not-uniform clothes for the settlement, Alors request. We’ll be here only long enough to finish offloading that.” he said, and Soup nodded, understanding. </p><p>Grate was his brother, and Soup wanted him safe. Soup also always knew that Grate would never be able to stay on one planet for very long without murdering someone. Or getting murdered with his abrasive personality reared its head. </p><p>“Sounds like you’ll be busy for Solstice, again.” he sighed. “Well, nothing for it. Bring your crew by for supper, and I’ll send you with a full crate of rations. We’ll make sure you eat well, between here and there.” he offered. </p><p>Grate nodded, smiling a little. He knew he was an abrasive asshole, but he also knew that Soup was the only brother he’d ever be nice to. After all, Soup was the only one of his batch left. He reached out, clapping a hand to Soups forearm. Firm, still, but heavier than he’d been in the GAR. The weight looked good on him, looked solid. </p><p>“I’d expect nothing less, Soup. You’ve always hated seeing any of us go hungry.” </p><p>And then Grate finished his bowl of spicy whatever-Soup-added-today, and felt full for the first time since he’d left atmo, the last time.</p>
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